jeff noel.org

Stairway To Heaven?

“The Christian life is like moving up the ladder toward God, one rung at a time. But the rung of a ladder was never designed for rest.” — unknown

Walking In His Shadow

It only takes a moment to become a Christian.

It takes a lifetime to become like Christ.

A Blog of a Different Color

Ladies and Gentleman, may I present Ohio’s Craig Nickoloff, a man who works hard to help make the world a better place for younger generations.  Here is Craig’s contribution to our Spirit entitled:

Coram Deo…

“I’m growing.

Always will be.

Human nature I guess.

I used to pride myself on doing my best.

Had a re-examination though.

Conclusion…

I still pride myself on doing my best.

Peeling away that outer layer, though, reveals a different motivation.

As a school student, I was out to bust stereotypes.
I was a scholar, athlete and musician; and excelled at each. But I wanted to prove that the different castes could get along well with each other. They didn’t have to stick to their circles for comfort’s sake. My target audience was my peers. By peers, I mean not just friends my age, but also family and anyone else who wanted to watch. It was a noble effort, but in the end, I was looking out for myself. I was expending a lot of energy to impress many others.

I got tired.

So, college – a sort of dark time – consisted of me dropping all pretenses and doing what I wanted. Fortunately, I come from a great family and the lessons they have taught me carried me and kept me from going any deeper.

And one key thing here…
God watched over me…
As he does all of us.

And his plan had much, much more in store for me.

God brought a strong, beautiful woman into my life. I don’t say beautiful to brag about her outwardly (which is nonetheless true), but to praise how God has molded her spiritually. He used her to guide me back to Him.

So it is in this state that I sit here, wondering how He’ll use me.

My motivation now is not that of before. I’m not living my life to impress others, not even my wife.
I hate to say it. But, it is possible to do “good” things; be a generally “good” person; live an outwardly respectable, impressive life; but also be a contradictory, no-good liar on the inside.
It’d be exhausting, but it’s possible.

Strip it all down.
Past bare body…
Past bare bones…
Past bare words…
Right down to bare spirit.

me & God.
mano y Omnipotent Creator.

He loves me so much that he’d sent his son, Jesus Christ, to take the entire world’s sins on his shoulders and die.

He knows my heart. He knows my thoughts. He knows my words. He knows my actions.

I get away with nothing.

Is my love for him pure?
Is my faith unwavering?

God gave us free will. It’s so hard to resist human temptations.

There’s a saying, “I’d rather beg forgiveness than ask permission” that helps some to make decisions.
That’s fine and dandy with our peers, as we live out our real-time lives.

But with God, while he is a forgiving God, he knows that that saying went through your head in the first place.
So, the whole procedural “beg for forgiveness” later thing doesn’t work so well.

I recently started a Bible study, published in Tabletalk magazine, with my wife. At the end of each page is an exercise entitled “Coram Deo.” In Latin, it literally means “before the face of God.”

So, going through the actions, through the motions, through the works is a nice thing. But what is it that really serves as the motivation?

I believe that the true calling of a Christian is to live one’s life Coram Deo.

And if I live my life before the face of God and glory in his grace and mercy, then all of the other “good” things will fall into place as I obey his commands.

Those actions won’t be done to prove, they’ll be done to demonstrate.

I’m praying everyday for strength and wisdom to do my best at living my life…

…Coram Deo.”

Please Do Not Disturb

“A Christian who is not evangelizing is a Christian on early retirement.” — unknown

There can be a fine line between being helpful and being obnoxious.

I often find people who don’t know me, and they start in on all the benefits of believing in God, and all the pitfalls of not, a little pushy.

And it is even realistic to describe my feeling as uncomfortable.

I pray that jeffnoel.org never makes anyone feel like that.  The beginning quote here reminded me that it’s quite possible to have blind spots.

Does anyone know a good Optometrist?

Always Hungry?

Human’s get hungry several times each day. No brainer, right?

We are always needing to feed ourselves.

Enter the rat race and insanely busy schedules.  Enter fast food establishments. Enter television.

The other day I saw a Burger King commercial, touting the toys in the kid’s meal packages.

The kids commented on the furry animal toys which are the current give-away.

“So real, it’s almost, real.”

Unexplainably, I immediately thought about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit – about Faith.

So real, it’s almost, real.

Life is hard for many people this time of year.  Add to that unprecedented times, and we have an overwhelming number of people who are struggling in one way or another right now.

And I mean struggling at a greater intensity than many generations can recall.

It sure seems that way to me.

Can you imagine being Tiger Woods right now, or President Obama, or even the Pope?

Can you imagine being the average American who can no longer put food on the table, when a year ago they could quite easily?

I worry about a lot more than I used to.  So, now more than ever, the phrase, “Pray without ceasing“, has a special meaning.

And also a special obligation.

Why do followers want passion?

Forgive me please.  A few days ago, I promised to elaborate. So here it is.

Why do followers want passion?  Pardon the boldness, but isn’t it obvious?

No.  Seriously.  Isn’t it obvious?

Who the heck wants to follow someone who doesn’t have passion?

Think about what it is that you admire in truly great leaders.

Passion usually revolves around wanting to do something very important, but with this caveat – to do something important even better.  To do more of it.

And the funny thing is, the passion is so overwhelming, that others are drawn to it beyond their control.

Moses, Paul, Peter, John, Mary. Ya with me?

Jesus.

Saturday’s post naming my top three favorite Christian artists, didn’t mention Mark Schultz.  Why? It contained  only the top three.

My good friend Craig reminded me of Mark Schultz – he’s number four.  One song of his is particularly poignant, “He’s My Son“.

Here’s a 1 1/2 minute version capturing the essence.  There were many, many nights, before our son’s disease was diagnosed that we felt fairly helpless.  Not that we no longer do, but we at least know what we are dealing with.

Faith, Hope and Love.

Doesn’t get much simpler than that.

And yet there are so many temptations that take us away from simple.

Simple doesn’t mean easy.  Take diet and exercise.  Two simple concepts to lower cholesterol and maintain a healthy body weight.

Yet, if it were easy, very few of us would have to worry about cholesterol and weight.  Ya with me?

So, what does this have to do with Faith, Hope and Love?

Everything!  Carpe diem.

A lifetime of learned behaviors.  Life is hard.  And mostly difficult. And busy.  And distracting.

Some days, maybe while watching a movie or TV show, we see a Family that seems to have it all together and wonder why we can’t live like that.

It’s a movie, okay?  It’s not real.  Yet perhaps there’s some compromise between what’s portrayed in books and movies, and what is our current reality.

Maybe.  maybe not.

I’d like to find out.

Carpe diem, jeff